No. 19 Vanderbilt's bid for its first-ever season sweep of Tennessee came up short, as the Commodores lost 75-66 to the 18th-ranked Lady Volunteers in their regular season finale.
Senior forward Christina Wirth led Vanderbilt (21-8, 10-4 Southeastern Conference) with 20 points, and junior guard Merideth Marsh scored 13. The Commodores were without sophomore forward Hannah Tuomi, tops on the team in shooting percentage, due to an injury.
Vanderbilt took a 34-31 lead into halftime but the Volunteers (20-9, 9-5) pulled back ahead by nine. A Marsh 3-pointer got the Commodores within one with seven minutes to play, but Tennessee went on a 16-3 run to put the game away. Vanderbilt forced 17 turnovers and scored 23 points off them but shot just 38.5 percent from the field, far below its season average.
The Commodores defeated Tennessee for the first time in seven years in January, 74-58, at Memorial Gym. They have still yet to defeat Pat Summitt's team in Knoxville.
In losing its second straight game for the first time since early January, the Commodores finished second in the SEC. It wouldn't have mattered if Vanderbilt had won; Auburn had claimed the regular season title earlier Sunday with a 94-57 rout of Arkansas to take the top seed in the SEC Tournament starting Thursday.
Vanderbilt finished the conference slate with a 7-0 record at home but a disappointing 3-4 mark on the road. The Commodores will still get a first-round bye in the tournament with a No. 2 seed. On Friday at 2:30 CT, they will face the winner of Thursday's No. 7/ No. 10 match-up featuring Georgia and Kentucky. Vanderbilt split its two meetings this season with Georgia with the home team winning each time; the Commodores knocked off the Wildcats in their only meeting on Feb. 8.
The SEC Tournament will be televised by FSN South.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
